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It will irk NDP partisans seeing their newly crowned Alberta premier mingling with those they traditionally oppose. But Notley's speech made it clear she plans to work closely with other provinces and the PM, in addition to First Nations, union and local government leaders to benefit her province.

He'll learn, if he follows the money, that two thirds of health dollars spent are public dollars, yet two thirds of health dollars consumed are by private health providers, which includes specialists and family physicians operating their own private practices. This means he isn't so much the commander of a "health system" as he is at the apex of a "health industry". In short, the secret to really getting things done is: incentives, incentives, incentives.

Rampant entitlement and disregard for the rules are part and parcel of Alberta's conservative political class. What's special about the Redford stories is only that she is getting caught and called out on her bad behavior.

Recall back in early March, then-Premier Alison Redford asked for an audit of the government's travel and expense policy and the use of government aircraft. The audit is due any time now and I expect it will be a doozy.

That's politics. The public gets irate over the small amounts because they can relate to them. But the funny thing is that politicians who get the small things right generally don't screw up the bigger ones.

We'll never get to see if Albert'a former premier, Alison Redford, could have paved an easier path for mothers to get into politics (and other jobs traditionally dominated by men). She resigned the premier's job last month and she's still a Calgary MLA but there are new questions about her spending.

While there are a myriad of reasons the Premier Redford has faced such heavy criticism, we have to recognize that systemic misogyny -- an entrenched prejudice against women and girls that is inherent in a given system, such as society -- plays at least some part in the story. It's not the only source of the premier's troubles, but it's certainly one piece in the much larger puzzle.

I would remind those people that for all the supposed "dignity" of Ms. Redford's departure, she remains a premier who her broke promises to Albertans from day one, slashed funding to social programs on which many vulnerable Albertans rely, and launched the most vicious attack on Alberta's working families in the province's history.

If you're noticing a pattern here, it's because there is one. Redford introduced a number of historic reforms to entitlements and transparency, but only after being forced to do so and with few other options.

We're talking about children. 741 children. Let's be frank about this situation and call these deaths what they are: unnecessary, preventable, and shameful. To say that no child in a potentially dangerous situation of which our government is aware should ever come to harm is probably unfair. Borrowing a glib, but perhaps apt saying, "things happen." We cannot control the outcomes of every situation of which we're aware.

In December, our union will be releasing the second issue of our magazine, Your Voice. In that issue will be an article providing a month-by-month account of the Redford government's ten biggest bullying moments in 2013.

Goods don't flow in only one direction. It turns out that a great deal of British Columbia's trade revenues come from the delivery of goods and services to provinces east of Alberta -- and one assumes most of those exports went through Alberta by truck and train.

In addition to the Keystone XL which would increase total capacity of the pipeline to 1.1 million barrels of diluted bitumen per day, Enbridge filed plans to Monday to build the $2.6B Sandpiper pipeline project across northern Minnesota. If approved, the project will move 225,000 barrels per day of unconventional oil to Minnesota, and 375,000 barrels to Wisconsin.

On the eve of her first Tory leadership review, Premier Alison Redford is watching the centre-left coalition she stitched together to win the 2012 provincial election come apart at the seams.
Voters are rapidly losing faith in Redford. A recent poll for the Calgary Herald shows that among people who voted Tory in 2012, nearly 46 per cent want a new leadership contest.

When looking at the actions of the Alberta government I feel a deep embarrassment. This is not my government. And as they continue to relentlessly and consistently bully and attack those for whom they were elected to work, I am confident in saying that they do not represent the majority of Albertans.